Hi all! Recently my daughter 9, 4th grade was identified as gifted. There were 6 other 4th graders identified as well. 4th Grade has about 135 students. I have had meetings with teachers and vice principal about doing 5th grade math this year instead of 4th Grade. The answer is always no. At the gifted meeting, the principal let us know that there are many options for our kids. One of them being grade or subject acceloration.
So, I was wondering if I'm being too picky. Rather than moving up a grade in Math, the teacher is 'enriching' the curriculum in the classroom for students who show mastery on the unit pre-test. The students are still required to complete the same homework as everyone else daily. DD has been given challenge homework as well.
She does it all easily. Her grade for the first trimester was a 97 in Math. Her lowest grades were 93's in Reading and Phys Ed.
So, for the first unit that she received enrichment for, she was given a paper that said "You have been selected by the **town name** survey company to conduct a survey of 50, 4th grade students. She was then to graph the results as a pie graph and find the mode, range, mean, median, and that stuff. She also had to come up with questions her classmates could answer about the data.
So, she really liked this and it seemed like a good way to keep her busy and happy and not have to re-learn stuff she already knew. 3 other kids in her class were also doing this enrichment activity.
So, my dd took it out at home, and because she was having trouble color coading the pie graph and her penmanship just wasn't coming out in the professional way she wanted it to, she used Photoshop to draw the graph and type the information. She handed in her rough draft and her printed copy the next day.
She was disappointed that the reports 'just went in the porfolio' and that there wasn't really a 'survey comittee'.
At conferences, the Math Teacher said she was concerned that DD thought she HAD to do these enrichment activities at home.I assured her that she just liked to make things nice and pollished.
The second enrichment project, (for the Decimals Unit) was to create a game that her classmates can play to learn decimals better. She came up with the game in class, and started to make it. She wrote the directions and got it approved by the teacher. As she was working, she 'messed up'...She is making 'decimal chess' and while she was creating the chess board, she colored a wrong square in black and was given whiteout. She took it out at home to work on it and made another mistake and was concerned because we didn't have any white out. Her paper was a huge gross mess.
She asked if she could make her chess board on Photoshop...of course I let her.
She laminated it with tape and taped it to a heavier piece of paper (that the teacher had given her)...She made test pieces out of paper to try the game out with Daddy and threw the pieces away when she was done. She wanted something heavier for the pieces.
Okay, Okay, I know very very long story. The next day the Math Teacher told her that she was not to work on enrichent projects at home.
I emailed her and told her that DD WANTED to do it at home and that I didn't help her. I was thrilled that she was so excited about the project.
So, no she can't work on these at home.
She waited a half an hour while the teacher was working with students, and then was able to ask what the teacher had in mind for making her game pieces. She spent the rest of class cutting them out of cardboard.
I feel totally ungreatful, because I know that the teacher is trying to differentiate and make the curriculum more stimulating for some of the kids who don't need all the review. BUT my daughter really isn't a 'hands on learner' and she certainly doesn't need to do hand on enrichment on something she already understands.
I was willing to overlook the fact that my daughter was being asked to teach the class...because she was engaged and happy with the work. Now, I feel like she is being discouraged from doing her best. I am just so thrilled she is interested in doing her best!
In reading the same day, she and another boy finished the book the whole class was reading for Giuded Reading. The higher readers have harder questions about what they read. The book is a 4th Grade leveled book and my daughter has been found by this same teacher to be reading and comprehending at a highschool/college level. When these two kids were done, they were told to ask each other questions about the book for that class.
I just feel like there could be so much more. I requested a meeting with the vice principal to talk about making a plan for DD's curriculum and the VP told me somthing about it being important for children to develop soft skills. Also, that kids should be doing too much work at home. It is not good for them. They need balance. It is hard for the teachers to monitor progress when the kids do classwork at home. (She is also not allowed to do homework in school.)
She met with DD and asked her some questions. Do you like 4th Grade? Yes.
If you could make your school schedule what would it be? 2 hours of Math, I would read a book, have recess, do some Science and the some more Math.
What do you do in your free time? Ballet
Do you like homework? Yes.
What books do you like to read? I dunno, Harry Potter? But I already read that. (She read it in second grade.)
What subject do you like the most? Math and Science..
Okay...so, am I being too aggressive?
She is in Math Olympiads after school once a week and it stretches her. She is in Ballet as much as we can bring her and she always wants more. This is a kid who is fast! She eats fast, she talks fast. I can't even take a picture of her and her sister with waiting for her to quickly change into 3 outfits and change the room around to be just right. And then her poses are forced and weird, but you get my point. She gives things her ALL when she is into them. If she can't give them her all, she quits.
I just think maybe she doesn't fit, and it's not the school's fault. Maybe their good enough, just isn't her good enough.
What in the world can I do?
